When developing a web application, the traditional way is to develop the application from scratch using a general purpose language such as PHP, Grails, Play, Java/JSP, etc. This presentation shows that a next generation wiki (examples based on XWiki: http://xwiki.org) can be used as a web development platform to develop applications on top of it, providing a strong infrastructure scaffolding to building web applications.

1. XWiki
A web development runtime platform based
on the wiki paradigm
Vincent Massol, February 2014

2. Agenda
• Developing on XWiki
• A runtime platform
• Usages
• QA

3. Developing on XWiki
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

4. Metadata!
Demo
• Ability to associate arbitrary
data to any wiki page
• 1: Create metadata definition in a wiki
page (a.k.a xclass)
• 2: Use it in wiki pages (a.k.a xobjects)
• 3: Use scripting in wiki pages to access it
• Allows application development
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

5. Skinning & Theming
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

6. Skin Extensions
CSS
JS
== Grease Monkey
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

7. Scripting in Pages (1/2)
{{groovy}}
import groovy.json.*
!
def url = "https://api.github.com/users/xwiki/repos".toURL().text
def root = new JsonSlurper().parseText(url)
!
println "|=Project|=Description|=Use Wiki?|=Use Issues?"
root.each() { repo ->
println "|[[${repo.name}>>http://github.com/xwiki/$
{repo.name}]]|${repo.description}|${repo.has_wiki}|$
{repo.has_issues}"
}
{{/groovy}}
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

8. Scripting in Pages (2/2)
{{velocity}}
#set ($xwql = "where doc.content like '%welcome%'")
#foreach ($item in $services.query.xwql($xwql).execute())
#if ($request.confirm == "1")
#set ($itemDoc = $xwiki.getDocument($item))
$itemDoc.setContent($itemDoc.getContent().replaceAll(
"welcome", "bienvenue"))
$itemDoc.save("Replaced bienvenue")
* [[$item>>$item]] replaced!
#else
* [[$item>>$item]]
#end
#end
!
[[Replace "welcome" by "bienvenue">>?confirm=1]]
{{/velocity}}
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

9. Components in Java
@Role!
public interface Macro!
{!
List<Block> execute();!
}
@Component!
@Named("message")!
@Singleton!
public class MessageMacro implements Macro!
{!
@Inject!
private Execution execution;!
!
!
@Inject!
@Named("box")!
private Macro boxMacro;!
public List<Block> execute()!
{!
...!
}!
}
META-INF/components.txt
org.xwiki.rendering.internal.macro.message.MessageMacro
+ Wiki Components!
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

10. Extensions
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

11. A runtime platform
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

12. Building an Application
Runtime
Traditional way
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

13. Building an Application
Runtime
Runtime
XWiki way - Morphing!
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

14. XWiki Platform
... for developing (collaborative) web applications
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

15. Usages
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

16. Multiple Usages
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

17. http://www.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/Screenshots
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

18. Long tail of Apps
Excel of the
Web
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

19. Pros
• Iterative, Need-based development
• Continuous Delivery
• Work collaboratively on creating applications
• Designers can style while devs create logic
• Works from day one, immediate feedbacks
• Open source and community-based
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

20. Q&A
Me
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012

21. Vincent Massol
vincent@xwiki.com
skype: vmassol
http://about.me/vmassol
!
http://xwiki.org
http://xwiki.com
Copyright (c) Vincent Massol - 2012